In a bid to improve the quality of education in the country, the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Education and Sports and the National Curriculum Development Centre embarked on the implementation of the new Competency Based curriculum at the Lower Secondary level (Senior One to Senior Four).

The first products of the new Competency Based Curriculum were unveiled on Tuesday 11^th February, 2025 when the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) released the results of the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) Examinations.

Unlike the traditional approach, which is teacher-centered presenting the learner as a passive recipient of knowledge, the new Competency Based Curriculum is learner-centered, ensuring that the learner is innovative, active, engaged and involved in the entire teaching and learning process.

According to Dr. Mathias Mulumba, an Associate Professor at Makerere University, also the Dean of the School of Education, the new Competency Based Curriculum is enveloped in a learner-centred approach.

“The learner is at the centre of the teaching and learning approaches. It is about assessing the competencies of the learner. The learner must play a big role because he or she is the one to benefit from the teaching and learning processes,” he said.

He revealed that the Competency Based Curriculum requires the teacher to be a facilitator who is well-versed with learner-centered methodologies and content knowledge to enable meaningful learning.

Acknowledging that this is the best curriculum, Uganda has ever had, Dr. Mulumba called upon academic staff, learners, parents, employers and stakeholders in general to be involved in its realization and effective implementation.

Opening the training workshop for Teacher Educators held on 19^th February 2025 at Makerere University, Dr. Mulumba stressed that the latest products (the Senior Four candidates who received the UCE results in February 2025) of the new Competency Based Curriculum are scheduled to join the Advanced level of education (Senior Five and Senior Six) and are expected to enroll at Universities in 2027 or 2028. He therefore stressed the need for academic staff at Makerere University and other Universities to be equipped with skills and knowledge that are in tandem with the new curriculum as well as the  expectations of the learners.

The training workshop focused on: Understanding the Competency Based Curriculum, Effective facilitation of CBC sessions, Assessment in CBC, Integration of CBC in Teacher Education programs, and what to expect in the Advanced Level Competency Based Curriculum.

In this regard, he applauded the College of Education and External Studies at Makerere University for implementing the project titled: Capacity Building of Teacher Educators in Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in selected Public Universities in Uganda, which is funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovation Fund (MakRIF).

He commended the Project Principal Investigator Dr. Mbulankende Julius Shopi together with his team consisting of Dr. Baluma Alfred, Dr. Walimbwa Michael, Associate Professor Esaete Josephine as well as the experts from the National Curriculum Development Centre namely Mr. Mathias Mulumba Mutema and  Ms Nansubuga Joyce for implementing the project at Makerere University, Busitema University and Mountains of the Moon University.

On behalf of the team, the Project Principal Investigator, Dr. Mbulankende, explained that the situation analysis did identify gaps in competencies and abilities of teacher educators to adapt to the new curriculum. To position the academic staff into the gist of the training, he paused a question: How is the University ready to receive the Competency Based Curriculum products?

In his address, the Chairperson of MakRIF, Prof. Fred Masagazi Masaazi acknowledged the President of the Republic of Uganda, H.E President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the Ministry of Education and Sports, and the National Curriculum Development Centre for the support extended to Makerere University College of Education and External Studies in the execution of its mandate.

Underscoring the re-tooling processes such as the training workshop in Competency Based Curriculum, Prof. Masagazi Masaazi advocated for regular training workshops and the continuous professional development of staff.

Noting that a significant number of Ugandans were yet to understand and appreciate the new Competency Based Curriculum, he urged the academic staff to sensitize stakeholders about the new curriculum. He encouraged them to come up with research projects aimed at popularizing the new curriculum.

Building on to the general observations and remarks from the Dean of the School of Education, the Project Principal Investigator and Prof. Masagazi Masaazi, a seasoned academic and educationist,the stage was set for a highly interactive and hands-on training workshop delivered by resource persons from the National Curriculum Development Centre and experts in the education field.

 Mr. Mathias Mulumba Mutema, a facilitator from National Curriculum Development Centre, constituted smaller groups consisting of lecturers of teaching methods and content areas into interactive and participatory sessions aimed at understanding and appreciating the changes in Uganda’s education system as well as the delivery and effective implementation of the new lower secondary school curriculum.

He shared a famous quote by John Dewey: “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”  Highlighting a typical example in the traditional approach, which was teacher-centred and based on a one-sided approach of receiving instructions from the teacher, Mr. Mulumba Mutema appealed to the teachers and participants to forget statements such as, “if you do not produce the notes the way I taught you, you will score zero.” He pointed out that such instructions do not have a place as stakeholders implement the new Competency Based Curriculum, which emphasizes the learner’s voice and choices.

He explained that the new curriculum is about usage of situations, illustrations, photos, examples, statements to enable the learner interpret real-life experiences and solve societal challenges.

Dr. Mulumba Mutema presented the features of traditional education versus Competence Based education citing the Motivis Learning, 2017. The traditional education is time based, passive learning, fragmented curriculum, isolation, textbook driven, teacher-centered, print, facts and memorization. Competency based education is outcome-based, provides for active learning, integrated curriculum, collaboration, research driven, student centered, multi-media and high order thinking.

One of the training sessions involved turning the teacher educators and lecturers into learners under the new Competency Based Curriculum, to discuss the successes and challenges of the new curriculum.

The workshop participants pointed out the following successes:  Innovativeness, Acquisition and Application of skills, Increased learner self-confidence, spending more time learning rather than copying notes, more interest in learning and relevance-solving societal problems.

Some of the challenges of the Competence Based Curriculum registered during this training session included: Shortage of learning materials, transition challenges from traditional to competence based, none involvement of parents, the need for large spaces compared to the existing infrastructure, integrity issues in assessment, interpretation of assessments, stakeholders’ knowledge gaps about the new curriculum.

At the climax, the participants testified that the new curriculum ignites creativity and critical thinking with the learner being an active participant; it is anchored in real life situations and experiences, and it engages the learner and promotes team work.

_{By Eutychus Ngotho Gichuru}

The announcement of the freezing of foreign aid by U.S. President Donald Trump sent shock waves around the globe, and one of the main sectors that would feel the consequences in Uganda was higher education. American aid had been a godsend for Ugandan universities as many have enjoyed support in their research, scholarship, and infrastructural projects. This withdrawal of such vital financial support has exacerbated existing challenges, making the need for innovative solutions to keep the higher education sector afloat quite urgent.

The Immediate Impact

The freeze in American foreign aid has brought about an immediate financial shock to the Ugandan higher education sector, considering its historical dependence on U.S. funding. The most conspicuous effect is in research funding, where universities have for a long time depended on grants from the USAID and other educational institutions for projects in health, agriculture, and technology. These funds now being frozen means that critical research programs, like HIV/AIDS research at Makerere University, have been brought to a screeching halt. This retardation of scientific progress not only reduces Uganda’s contribution to global research but also impoverishes achievements in public health and technology. Further, scholarships provided by American institutions have been disrupted, which has thrown current beneficiaries into financial crisis and barred any prospective students from opportunities for higher education. The loss of these scholarships goes a long way in affecting student opportunities, especially among those who had avenues of social mobility. Another effect of the freeze has been felt on Ugandan universities regarding infrastructural development, which aims to ease pressures associated with learning environments. Because USAID had previously financed the construction of lecture halls, libraries, and laboratories, institutions without such support could only struggle to maintain quality education facilities, further leading to classroom congestion and resource shortages.

 Long-term Educational Consequences

The freezing of this aid has repercussions that go beyond the immediate financial blow to encompass long-term ramifications threatening to unravel stability at higher education in Uganda. Long-term effects include compromises on quality education, whereby with reduced funding, there is the tendency for universities to cut budgets in faculty development; this may be disastrous in securing qualified educators. This may lead to larger class sizes, outdated teaching materials, and a general decline in academic standards. The freeze also threatens international collaborations between Ugandan and American institutions, which have been instrumental in fostering academic exchanges and joint research projects. Loss of these partnerships isolates Uganda from global academic networks, limiting opportunities for knowledge transfer and innovation. Other key concerns are the brain drain, as reduced prospects for research funding and academic growth may drive across the border some of the best scholars and students. This would weaken the nation’s workforce through the exodus of intellectual capital, negatively affecting national development. If not strategically intervened upon, the country will continue experiencing a prolonged educational crisis that may take years to get out of, increasing the gap between Uganda and other more developed academic systems around the world.

Case Studies: The Human Element

In drives to flesh out the human face behind the aid freeze, specific case studies were crucial in regard to Uganda’s higher education sector. Makerere University, recognized for its research excellence and the country’s premier institution, has suffered immensely due to funding disruptions. Projects focusing on HIV/AIDS research, which were largely supported by American grants, are now at risk of stagnation. This indeed, affects not only the university’s standing globally but also the greater fight against HIV/AIDS within Uganda, which has had tremendous progress in combating the epidemic. Similarly, Kyambogo University has emerged with programs in special education and vocational training; however, it faces acute setbacks. In this regard, various programs aimed at supporting students with different abilities can no longer easily secure alternative funding, thus marginalizing such groups as far as the educationist support is concerned. These examples epitomize that freezing of aid is not an abstract financial problem; it’s real people-students, educators, and researchers-dependent on American aid to advance interests for their career and academic objectives. The money dried up-cuts across the lives, damped aspirations, and threatens wiping out years of gains in this East African country.

What Can Be Done?

Regardless of whether the crisis has been less or more severe, there are a few approaches that could help the higher education sector in Uganda reduce the shock of the freezing of aid: first, diversification of funding. First and foremost, the Ugandan government should prioritize education in its budget to ensure that universities receive appropriate financial support. This might be supplemented by the introduction of educational bonds, specific education taxes, and the increase in national research grants. Additionally, deeper interaction with the private sector can promote scholarships, endowments, and research grants that orient education to market demands. Secondly, international partnerships with non-American institutions in Europe, Asia, and Africa could also provide sources of funding and collaboration opportunities. Further, the institutional resilience would be enhanced by cost management and income generation. The universities should also maximize all their financial resources by embracing full digital transformation-which would lower dependence on real estate infrastructure-while looking out for other opportunities like online course sales and offering consultancy services. Thirdly and lastly, there is also advocacy and influencing policy. For this, it is important that educational bodies urge the U.S. government toward exemptions or reviews of the foreign aid policy. Domestically, there is a need for policies that emphasize education funding and incentivize private sector investment in academia. Alumni networks can also be leveraged to make contributions toward university endowments, which could be used to grant scholarships and finance research projects. Finally, there is a need to adapt to new realities through curriculum reform and technological integration. Ugandan universities should, therefore, design curricula with an emphasis on practical skills that reduce foreign aid dependence by making them self-sustaining. Integrating technology in education, such as offering online courses to international students, can also generate revenue and expand Uganda’s academic influence globally.

Conclusion

The Trump aid freeze serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerability of educational systems that overly depend on foreign assistance. For Uganda, it is a call to action-an opportunity to restructure and fortify its higher education framework to become more self-sufficient and resilient. While the immediate implications of the freeze are indeed daunting, this crisis offers an opportunity for innovation, new partnerships, and construction of sustainable funding mechanisms. Diversification of funding sources, reinforcement of institutional resilience, policy advocacy, alumni engagement, community outreach, and new educational models-these are how Uganda’s higher education sector may surmount the setback and grow stronger. The future of Ugandan higher education lies in strategic adaptation, not dependence. The proactive steps will be more appropriate. This crisis can accelerate the wheels of long-term improvement in the performance of Uganda universities with stakeholders’ timely intervention so that even with falling global finance, Uganda universities may continue to prosper.

Eutychus Ngotho Gichuru is a Doctoral Student at East African School of Higher Education Studies and Development, College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University.

This report on mapping research in education intends to ignite debate on completion of doctoral studies to improve on doctoral throughput, and reflect on emerging research themes in order to strengthen and increase on evidence-based research from the College of Education and External Studies (CEES) that can address a myriad of education related challenges in Uganda and beyond. The College of Education and External Studies (CEES) is one of the ten (10) constituent colleges of Makerere University. Makerere University aspires to be research-led in the current strategic period, 2020-2030 and as CEES journeys ‘Towards a Research-led College’, it is prudent to take stock of research capacity by analyzing PhD graduates of the period 2012-2024 and continuing PhD students admitted by 2022/2023 as well as the emerging research themes in CEES.

First, the total number of PhD completers was 121 in the period 2012-2024 out of whom only six (6) completed in less than 5 years, which is only 5 percent. This is a worrying statistic since at Makerere University, an institutional average of 41% of registered PhD students is reported to complete within four (4) years. Apparently, majority of the completers in CEES complete in 5-9 years represented by 86 PhD graduates. In the same way, among the continuing PhD students, only 59 out of 194 PhD students have spent 3-4 years on the programme perhaps because their year of admission is relatively recent. Second, the research themes that the doctoral research focuses on were explored. Nineteen (19) out of 121 PhD graduates had researched on human resource management, eleven (11) focused on technology in education, eleven (11) on pedagogy/teaching and learning, and only five (5) on inclusive education among others. In the continuing student cohort, there is a surge in students researching on pedagogy /teaching and learning (24), technology in education (20), inclusive education (16), and emergence of a research theme on STEM Education/TVET (17) out of 194 continuing PhD students.

To compound the research themes at CEES, PhD student and academic staff research funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovation Fund (MakRIF) focused on quite similiar themes. Finally, areas of research that have been dominant across specialities in CEES in the last and next 5-10 years were highlighted by 28 academic staff at different ranks who responded to a survey. Overall, this report presents us with an opportunity to further reflect on the CEES Research Agenda, how to tap and maximize the potential of expertise in CEES, how to harness the diverse PhD research in education and research by academic staff in order to strongly generate impactful research and innovations, and contribute to policy and practice through policy briefs, knowledge briefs, and guidelines for uptake in education and the education system.

Ronald Bisaso, PhD. FUNAS.
Associate Professor of Higher Education and Deputy Principal, CEES.